Iain Reid is one of the UK players in this event who has elected to break with the common wisdom that Curve Sentinels is the best deck, and is instead playing something a little bit fruitier. Henry Henry is a rather neatly monikered Belgian playing a Brotherhood beatdown deck.

Both players elected to keep their opening hands, and both players didn’t recruit on turn 1.

Iain’s uncontested Shaligo on turn 2 elicited a small chuckle from Henry, but there was nothing he could do to stop the pain that came with him.

On turn 3, Henry brought out Quicksilver—surprising the Scotsman who had placed his opponent as a Curve Sentinels player (not an uncommon thing to see today). Iain had a Big Bear, who stood in front of Shaligo, attempting to be a big wall. Unfortunately for Iain, when Lost City was flipped up, Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff was surprisingly large, and he was forced to play Acrobatic Dodge. The Belgian’s draw seemed ideal, though, as he had an Avalon Space Station, and a pitched Magneto, Master of Magnetism brought back Quicksilver, Speed Demon for more pumps.

Turn four saw a team-up from the Scotsman, and Himon, a potentially powerful card in a sea of Wild Ride, Overload and Bat-Signal, but less immediately threatening here. Henry’s draw continued to impress all spectating when he recruited Sabretooth, Feral Rage on turn 4, discarding Magneto, Master of Magnetism. A Have a Blast! from the Belgian dulled the threat of various team attacks that Reid might have been considering. Himon and Big Bear still tried their luck on Sabretooth, Feral Rage, and indeed managed to stun him, with Himon taking the stun back.

Shaligo then attacked Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff with a little help from Apokolips. It would appear that it is the most read card of the day, despite being fairly under-represented within the field as a whole. Both players read the card, and then this feature match reporter read it (just to get the spelling, honest). Henry responded with an Avalon Space Station activation, discarding Quicksilver, Speed Demon to return a Quicksilver, Speed Demon and a Magneto, Master of Magnetism. He then powered-up. The attacks back from the Belgian resulted in a 9 point endurance advantage, as well as a stunned board for his opponent. Himon recovered, and play moved on to turn 5.

With the initiative, Henry Henry recruited Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr. All Iain had was Scott Free ◊ Mr. Miracle. Both Iain’s characters cowered in the support row, wary of the oncoming attack. At the beginning of the attack phase, Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr exhausted Himon. He then declared an attack on Himon, to which Reid responded with Concrete Jungle. It turns out that this is the second most-read card in the tournament, but is probably a decent bit of technology. Henry responded with an Avalon activation so that he would have power-ups for later. He then stunned Himon quite merrily, with a Savage Beatdown forcing him to reinforce.

For turn six, Iain had a Kanto to recruit. Suddenly the plan started to come together, as the Belgian looked down at his now face-down resources. Iain teamed up to draw a card, and then Henry had to discard a card to flip Genosha, which ultimately drew him four, though not before he recruited Mystique, Shape-Changing Assassin.

In his attack step, Iain paid 3 endurance in an attempt to KO Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff, but was thwarted by a Have a Blast! on his Concrete Jungle, and then Lost City being flipped. The life totals stood at 43 to 18 in favor of the Belgian. Another Have a Blast! came, taking out Iain’s team-up, and all of a sudden, the Scotsman’s attacks were looking rather complicated, though his Apokolips was getting better and better. By playing The Source on his opponent’s Savage Beatdown, Reid was able to get a fair idea of what cards were in his deck, and what to watch out for. In a game of imperfect information, he now knew as much as he could reasonably hope for. His opponent held two Magnetos and a Quicksilver. Scott Free attacked into Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff, who was unsurprisingly powered up. What was surprising was the lack of tricks from the Scotsman, beyond just evading his attacker. Kanto was next to attack, into Quicksilver with a bit of Apokolips backup. Quicksilver did his little dance of death, exhausting to deal 5 to Reid, then got stunned with a lot of breakthrough. When Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr and Mystique team attacked Kanto on the attacks back, it was enough for the Scotsman to extend his hand, ending the round beaten but not down-hearted.

Henry Henry wins.